Skip to content

Augusta Prep's Leadership has a Strategic Growth Plan

APDS Collage Derrick WillardDerrick Willard and his team are leading Augusta Preparatory Day School on a journey to Sustained Excellence.

Even through the enormous challenges of the last year, they have remained focused on the goals to elevate the culture and instill a tenacious commitment to the mission and core values. Below is a recent article he shared with his community regarding their Strategic Growth Plan.

_________________

In December of 2020, we released our new Strategic Growth Plan to establish a vision of the future we want to grow into and use to grow the school’s enrollment between 2020 and 2023.

This plan was the result of 18 months of collaboration with our Board of Trustees and School Growth. The School Growth team provided market analysis, stakeholder surveys, focus group discussions, data analysis, and community presentations.

Everything was ready to launch in our journey to sustained excellence, and then COVID-19 hit. 

Despite the pandemic, though, we have achieved significant growth and continue moving forward.

While you can read the entire plan on our website, I want to focus on the five key learnings and the five vision statements. Using School Growth's data-driven approach, five pervasive themes were revealed across all stakeholders:
  1. Strong relationships: The data clearly demonstrated the deep connections between our students, parents, and faculty.
  2. Academic excellence: Core to our value proposition to families in the Augusta community is an unusually strong academic program that sets high expectations and utilizes the most effective pedagogical strategies.
  3. Culture is crucial: Sustaining our community culture requires a disciplined approach to communication and interpersonal aptitude that builds engagement with all stakeholders.
  4. Consistency of the experience: Delivering a consistently high level of quality and relationships across each grade and program is of utmost importance to achieve our growth goals.
  5. Continuous improvement: Adapting to the needs of families and the rapidly changing nature of our community and economy requires that we continue to learn from internal and external feedback and improve with disciplined leadership.
I am a biology teacher at heart, so let me use a life sciences analogy. We consider OUR MISSION, PHILOSOPHY, AND CORE BELIEFS to be our “DNA” of our plan “body,” the five key learnings as the “skeleton,” and the five vision statements as the “flesh” we will put on the “bones.”
 
Our vision for Augusta Preparatory Day School, by the end of 2023, is a school that will:
  1. Serve as a center of excellence for faculty development, where all faculty members are actively engaged in professional growth and professional communities.
  2. Serve as a center of excellence for student development, attracting students interested in developing their talents in academics, arts, and athletics.
  3. Be a growing, diverse, inclusive, and safe community.
  4. Be the premiere school in the CSRA, known for cultivating students in the pursuit of individual growth, strong character, and opportunities to serve their local, regional, and global communities.
  5. Cultivate curious learners who can contribute individually and collaboratively towards developing innovative solutions to real-world problems.

_________________

As you can see, Derrick and his team are well-prepared to continue on their journey to greatness. With a leadership and faculty that is fully aligned with the mission, culture, and strategies, they are advancing the disciplines of effective school leadership to deliver a consistent experience that meets the needs of families today. 

Want to learn more about starting a Strategic Growth Plan for your school? 

Let's Talk

Listen to the School Growth podcast

Read On

by: Scott Barron
Podcast
Educators understand that our best life most often occurs when we stop waiting on life to give us opportunities for growth and instead seek out relationships and resources to live on purpose. Life is short and remembering that fact enhances our...
by: Scott Barron
Leadership, Culture, Podcast
Have you noticed that Exceptional is one of those words that doesn't do well solo? It's a word that obviously needs a qualifier to more clearly communicate the intended meaning. Some people are exceptional for positive reasons, and some are...
by: Scott Barron
Leadership, Culture, Podcast
In the last months of the school year, educators are reminded, "Wait, there's more." We're not at the end yet, and the manner in which we finish defines our character. We start with great plans and expectations for the year, but then school happens,